Die A Hero
by idioticonion
Summary: A story about Doctor Horrible's cleaner, who is also called Penny - but not *that* Penny - and what life is like for a supervillian once he gets everything he ever wanted. Multi-part fic with 8 parts in total.
1. Chapter 1

Part 1: The cleaning woman

He _stared_ at her, that was the problem.

She tried to ignore it - tried to dust and clear up around him. But for an hour each morning he would sit there in that over-sized arm chair and watch her intently, expressionless. He was always in shadow against the bay-window, but when she glanced over in his direction, she was painfully aware that his blue eyes never left her.

It was starting to really creep her out.

It's not like she hadn't cleaned other Evil Headquarters (after all, there was good money in Evil. The pay was great). She expected a certain level of weirdness, if not downright moral dubiousness, in this job. But this… this _staring_? What did he want?

It went against etiquette to talk to him, of course. The servants weren't supposed to berate the owner for anything! And she'd had far more cause to be fed up with Fury Leika with what that... woman... had left lying around her Evil Headquarters. This new one was a relatively tidy guy by comparison. There really wasn't much to do and it was an easy job apart from the occasional odd smell that drifted in from the lab in the basement. In fact, she didn't really know why they employed her to clean every day. She supposed he must be one of those anal obsessives?

He'd only talked to her once, when she'd first got the job. He'd been reticent - almost shy. She'd called him Sir. They weren't allowed to call him Doctor Horrible. He didn't even _look_ like Doctor Horrible, since he never wore that Mad Scientist get-up in the house. In fact, in the first few days she'd worked there, she'd kind of got used to thinking of him as "the boss" (which was how she referred to him to her Mum back home) until she'd seen him putting on the white coat and goggles to head down at the lab. She'd almost dropped her duster as he glanced over at her with the blank, menacing stare before she'd hurried on with her duties. The effect of that outfit was terrifying, after all. Not in itself - the costume was almost silly when you though about it. But it was iconic - it represented the sum of his terrible atrocities, so well publicised by the city's press. From that moment on, she couldn't see him and not see Doctor Horrible.

It was all there in his eyes - in that stare. In the stare that was tuned in on her for one hour every day, beating away at her like the ocean eroding a piece of rock. She'd break, she knew that. Not today perhaps, but someday soon. And she'd lose a great steady job.

Oh, why did he have to _stare_?


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2 - The cook. **

He stood up and walked towards her. She kept her gaze firmly averted. Perhaps if she didn't catch his eye, he'd go away? She certainly wasn't going to get into a staring competition with him. She might as well try that on her cat, she'd have more hope of winning!

"Penny…" He said softly. He was standing right behind her. So close, she could feel his breath ruffle her hair. She tensed, swallowing. Okay… this had gone beyond creepy.

She felt him move, his lips brushing her ear as he leaned in and whispered something so foul that her eyes went wide as saucers and her brain told her she _must_ have misheard him.

He took a step away from her then, head cocked, and he smirked at her - a crooked smirk that stripped everything away. Suddenly he was no longer Doctor Horrible - he was just some sleazy boss who'd make an inappropriate joke (come on, that _had_ to be a joke, right?) to get a rise out of her. She did what she did next on pure instinct. If she'd had taken even a second to think about it, the next few days in her life would have been very, very different.

She slapped him.

She slapped him hard, with the flat of her hand, right across the face. She held nothing back. In that moment, the force of her anger, the frustration at the interminable _staring_ just burst right out of her.

He staggered back, knees buckling in a way that was almost comical and clutched his face. She paled of course, realising what she'd done. After all, this wasn't the kind of job where the worst that could happen is that you got fired without references. This was the kind of job where you might end up blown into a million pieces by his death ray. Jesus Christ - what had she done?

But hold on - what was-? He was laughing! He was stumbling around as if trying to regain his balance and chuckling.

"Ow!" he said, grinning. "OW! Seriously, that was _fierce_! I guess I deserved that?"

She opened her mouth and at first no words came. Her brain raced furiously but when she did speak, her sense of self-preservation seemed to have deserted her. "Yeah you did!" She said angrily.

He smirked again, but this time it was softer, almost boyish. She was struck by how handsome he was when his features were mobile - the keen intelligence in his eyes. Had he been playing with her all this time. This made her even more angry.

"C'mon," He said, beckoning her to follow him. "I think I owe you lunch. And an apology?" He turned to leave the room, and she put her hands on her hips, still throwing daggers with her eyes. "C'mon!" He said bobbing his head. "I'm sorry, okay? What can I do to make it up to you? BLT? Steak sandwich? I'm sure cook's got something like that on the go." He grinned again.

She could feel herself crumbling beneath his confidence. He was really very persuasive! She took a hesitant step forward but it wasn't fast enough for him so he took her hand and practically dragged her down the corridor towards the kitchen.

For the first time, she noticed the glorious aromas that were wafting along the corridor and her stomach growled noisily. She gave him a challenging stare when he glanced over at her and smirked. "You got an industrial suction pump in there?" He quipped and she blushed. He really _was_ evil!

Doctor Horrible led her into a spacious kitchen, filled with steam, noise and marvellous scents. In the centre of it all was a small man dressed in chef's whites.

"Hey Moist!" Doctor Horrible said. At least that's what Penny thought he'd said. Moist?

"Hey Doc," The small man replied. "Hey Penny."

"Do I know you?" She asked, as the man stuck out his hand to give her a slightly damp handshake.

Moist grinned at Doctor Horrible. "Not yet. But my friend is nothing if not predictable."

Horrible rolled his eyes. Penny's mild annoyance at this private joke was mollified somewhat when Moist handed her a sandwich.

It was the juiciest, most perfectly cooked BLT she'd ever tasted.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3 - So much to do, so little time.

A few weeks later, when Penny went down to get a snack, she was taken aback by the chaos that had taken over the normally orderly kitchen. Moist was hidden behind a host of steaming pots and pans, all four range-cookers were on the go and she could swear that there was a bale of hay shoved against the sink.

Moist looked up and her and grinned apologetically. "Hey Pen. Sorry, bit busy today. Help yourself to cookies?" He nodded over at the jar while simultaneously trying to fry onions with one hand and empty a boiling pot with the other.

"Sounds exciting," She said. "You need any help?" He smiled gratefully, gesturing for her to chop some carrots that lay waiting beside him. She liked Moist. He was a cool guy - sweet and a bit geeky but fun. And he really was the best ever cook. Every day she came down for a taste test at lunch and she marvelled at what he did with even the simplest of foods. It had become a ritual - her, Moist and the Doc, hanging out for coffee or a sandwich, just chatting about inconsequential nonsense. Sometimes the two of them would lose her when they'd disappear into flights of nerd-fantasy and she'd bring them back down to earth with a look or a giggle. It was… nice. Her mum had commented that she seemed to be settling in much better now with her new employer.

"So what's up?" Penny continued, smiling at Moist. "You're cooking for an army and I haven't seen the Doc for three days!" And, weirdly, she's missed him. Not that she ever saw him much outside of their daily lunch date, it seemed strange not to bump into him anywhere in the house. She didn't dare go down into the basement, of course. She wondered if Moist did?

"Yeah…" Moist said. "He's been kind of busy? Stuff in the lab, you know?"

Penny nodded, although she didn't know, not really. She didn't want to think about what the Doc was cooking up down there. In fact, she had a really hard time reconciling what Doctor Horrible was with the guy she'd been getting to know these last few weeks.

"Too busy for lunch?" She said, cocking an eyebrow as she moved on to chopping a bucket-load of potatoes for Moist.

"Hey, it's not like he's doing it deliberately. He just gets…caught up…"

Penny could see something in Moist's eyes, something sad and perhaps even a little scared. It reflected so deeply the way she herself was feeling that she burst out "It's easy to forget what he is. Then something happens to make you remember."

Moist frowned and turned to look at her, putting down both pans with a crash. "What he is?" He shook his head, realising he'd raised his voice. "Ahhh, you don't really know him."

Penny was about to protest but Moist cut her off.

"Before you came here, he got through ten maids in a couple of months. Ten other… Pennys. He's very… conflicted. There's people around him that rub off on him, they're a bad influence. When you stood up to him-"

Again, Penny tried to protest.

"You did stand up to him," Moist grinned, waving his hand at her. "Little slip of a thing!" She grinned back - she wasn't much shorter than him! "I know he was bullying you." Moist said.

"It wasn't so much the bullying as the sexual harassment," she said, which made Moist laugh.

"Well that's exactly it! He needs people to stand up to him. He's a dick otherwise. He starts to believe his own press."

Penny nodded. This made a lot of sense. Someone as powerful as Doctor Horrible could surround themselves with yes-men and become incredibly arrogant. "Well, I know you keep him down to earth." She smiled. "How long have you known him?"

"About four years," Moist replied, turning his attention back to the pan, which was drying up. As Penny watched him, it was as if the food perked up the second he touched the pan, regaining its sheen. She nodded, impressed by his skill. "We met around the time the ELE started to get the big press. There's a whole host of wannabes for everyone in the League, you know." He smiled to himself. "I mean, I knew things would be different when get got into the League, but sometimes things get really… hardcore, you know?" Penny nodded and Moist continued. "I just wish sometimes… I know he's trying to protect me and all, but he never really tells me everything now and it would be useful to have more than one days notice of the ELE coming…" Moist coughed and looked away, hurrying over to a cupboard.

"What?" Penny said, amazed, "The Evil League of Evil are coming here? When? Today?"

"Shhh!" Moist said urgently. "You're not supposed to know! I wasn't supposed to say anything!"

They both looked around guilty as they heard someone enter the room. It was the Doc, still wearing his lab coat, which was splattered with something green, and looking a little wild-eyed and a lot dishevelled.

"Hey Moist," he said dully. "Pen," He looked exhausted, she thought, as he adjusted his goggles and, thinking better of it, took them off completely. "I know you're busy, but is there anything I could eat? I'm half starved here!" He tried to smile charmingly but he looked ready to drop.

"Have a cookie," Moist said, pushing the jar over towards him.

"Mmmm," Doctor Horrible said, shoving one into his mouth and closing his eyes in rapture. "Thank god. I really needed sugar."

Penny laughed. "You look terrible," she said.

"Thanks!" He said sarcastically. "You don't look too bad yourself."

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you should get some rest. When was the last time you got some sleep?"

"Er, what day is it today?" Horrible said, vaguely, trying to talk and eat at the same time. "Er… I think… Tuesday? An' I don't need mothering."

Penny sighed, exasperated. "Well, I'd get an hour's shut eye, if I were you! Can't have you looking like that this evening?" She grinned.

Horrible rolled his eyes and then glared at Moist. "You _told_ her?" He set the cookie jar down hard on the table. "And you wonder why I don't tell you things? If this got out…"

Moist visibly cringed. "I'm sorry, Doc."

"I can't believe it! I'm surrounded by the most idiotic, stupid-"

"Hey!" Penny said, moving towards him and poking him in the chest mid-rant. "Don't take this out on Moist. You're tired and cranky and you'll end up saying things you don't mean!"

Horrible seemed to deflate. He took her finger and pushed it away from him. His hands were very cold, she thought.

"I'm sorry man," He said to Moist. Then he stared at Penny - that same heartless, empty stare that he used to use on her all those weeks ago. It gave her chills. "I'll see you later, Penny," He said, and somehow it seemed like a threat.

When he'd gone, she exhaled a breath she hadn't even known she was holding. "Crap!" She exclaimed. "I'm in trouble now!"

"Hey, don't be hard on yourself." Moist grinned, and then laughed. "Anyone else did that, he have cut their finger off with a laser and fed it to 'em!"

Penny grinned weakly. "You are joking, right?"

*--*--*

When Penny saw the Doc later that day she almost jumped out of her skin.

She'd gotten on her coat to leave for the day, said goodbye to Moist and heard a commotion coming from the front porch. She didn't normally leave the house by that route but she dithered by the stairs, peering round the corner as a stream of curiously garbed strangers trudged into the corridor. It took her a few seconds to recognise them and realise what she was seeing. She took a fearful step back as she heard a whinny and bumped into someone standing behind her.

Turning around, her stomach dropped as she looked up at Doctor Horrible. She couldn't move, she was frozen to the spot. He peered down at her - at least she assumed he did, but the black goggles covered his eyes and even if she could see them, she was afraid of that dead-eyed expression, like a shark baring down on its prey.

He looked… impressive, in red. She'd never seen that particular costume in real life before. She guessed it was something he kept for special occasions? Perhaps even for League meetings? She marvelled at how her mind raced with thoughts such as these even though her body simply refused to move out of the way.

He stared at her for another heartbeat before turning away, walking past her up the corridor and towards, she supposed, his destiny.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4 - The aftermath

Fifteen dead, it said on the news. Penny swallowed, pulling her car into the drive. Fifteen dead was the largest single death toll attributed to Doctor Horrible, the newscaster announced stridently. The municipal building had exploded, killing all the occupants, at midnight the previous night.

All dead. Penny closed her eyes. All dead. How could a person do that? How could she work for a person who could do that? But hadn't she known he was a ruthless killer when she met him? Wasn't she being entirely hypocritical?

She sighed, getting out of the car. Being a Sunday, the grounds were deserted. She shook her head to clear it, fetching her overall and bag from the back of the car before striding up to the house, more confidently than she felt. Did she really think she knew Doctor Horrible? Did she think they'd become friends, she and the Doc? Hypocritical or not, she didn't think she could do this any more. She'd hand in her notice that very day. She could stand up to his stare now.

On entering the house, she could hear classical music playing. A piano something - concerto? She wasn't really very knowledgeable about that sort of thing, but the music was sweet and sad. She wondering if Moist had the radio on in the kitchen again? She smiled. She hadn't thought Moist was a piano concerto kind of guy! She'd miss Moist…

Making her way down to the kitchen, she slipped on her overall. Moist wasn't there. That was weird - he was always in earlier than she was. Sometimes she swore he must have stayed the night.

So where was the music coming from?

She walked back through to the library, noticing the door to the lab had been left ajar. She closed it carefully. Better for _him_ to stay down there that morning. She was in no mood to talk to him yet. Perhaps later after she'd spent an hour working off her disappointment and anger cleaning the floor..?

As she walked past the parlour, she realised that the music had got louder. She frowned, slowing to a stop outside the adjacent room. The music sounded echo-y and strange, like an old vinyl record recording or something, played on a trumpet gramophone, but without the scratches. She poked her head round the door, wondering what it was.

It wasn't a record.

What it was, was a piano. A real, old-fashioned upright piano. And Doctor Horrible was playing it, fingers skating nimbly across the keys, making the beautiful, heart-wrenching music. She couldn't see his face, his back was turned to her, but she could see he wasn't wearing his costume. Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the red lab-coat, goggles and gloves that had been cast to the floor when he'd taken them off the night before, still laying where he'd thrown them.

Her jaw dropped. She had no idea he could play the piano! But she guessed it was relatively stereotypical as far as villains were concerned. Penny sighed. She hated him then. How could he sit there, blithely playing such a beautiful piece of music while fifteen people lay dead at his hands? She took a step back and the door creaked.

He stopped playing instantly, but didn't look around. His shoulders slumped.

"S-sorry!" She said. "I'm sorry!" She was about to leave but he swivelled around on the stool and at last she could see him.

"Penny…" He said simply, the word barely a whisper. He looked… a fright. His eyes were red and puffy, his face pale as a ghost. "Don't go?" He said, breathing out the words as if they were twin wraiths, sent out to keep her there for just a few seconds.

"Fifteen dead," She said, not knowing why she said it.

His brow furrowed, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I know." He said simply. At least he didn't try to deny it.

"Fifteen dead, Doc," She repeated, and this time he cringed.

"D- Don't call me that…" He stuttered. "Billy… Billy is… my name."

"You work for an evil organisation, _Billy_," She said, although it was hard to carry on with this. She could see the pain, etched plainly on his face. She could see something, something raw and vulnerable in him, that she'd never seen before.

"I know that." He said simply. "It could be a lot worse."

She shrugged, not understanding him.

"It was fifteen. It should have been thousands last night, Pen. Thousands."

She shook her head, trying to deny this. Was it a lie? Was he playing with her again? But every instinct told her that he was telling the truth.

"I still believe in chaos," He said, eyes unfocussed as if he were reading a speech from deep inside his mind, written years before. "I still believe in putting the power in different hands. But murder? Mass slaughter? There's people in the ELE who relish that. Who glory in it. I'm all that stands between them and the world."

Penny slumped against the back of the door. "You still killed fifteen people." She said, although she was wavering. Given such a choice, could she do that? Sacrifice a few to save thousands? She knew without a doubt she couldn't do that. Only frikkin' _Presidents_ had to make choices like that! And how could he live with himself. Billy…? Why tell her that? Why burden her with his real name? If it even _was_ his real name..? She felt her anger build again.

"I killed fifteen people." He said, nodding. "At one time I would have given you a litany of excuses. It was a mistake. They weren't meant to be there. They were all evil anyway." He swallowed. "There is no excuse. It was always my fault."

She frowned. This sounded pretty close to self-pity to her.

He grimaced, obviously recognising the look on her face. "I killed the love of my life. A girl. Another girl named Penny. The first Penny. I killed her, not because I did something but because I _didn't_ do something. B-because I didn't _kill_ someone. It's when you fail to act that the world goes to hell. It's when you hesitate…"

"That's ridiculous…" She said, although she knew she couldn't possibly understand any of this. She suddenly felt very small in the world, very inexperienced. All her anger at him evaporated, to be replaced by shame. She sighed. "You can't throw out your moral compass completely. Every time you compromise like that, every time you say that one murder is okay, that's when a bit of evil eats your soul."

Billy looked straight at her. "I know," He said. "I guess that means I'm in hell already."

She strode over to him. "Gah! I just want to shake you! If this is the way you feel, Doc, then leave! Quit! Get out of the Evil League of Evil. There's other things you could do. It's not all your responsibility."

Billy shook his head and looked away. For a moment, Penny thought she caught a look of doubt about him. But he shook it off. "They'd never let me leave. I know too much about them. And if I did leave then who else would stop them? The heroes? _Captain Hammer_?" He spat out the last two words. "I have to stay. I have to endure this. I have to accept this."

Penny smiled then and gently took his hand. "You may feel you have to stay. But you don't have to do it alone. Moist will help you. I will help you."

There was a spark of hope in his eyes as she leaned in closer, silently and earnestly trying to give his strength. There was a tingle in the air between them then-

Bump! The door knocked against her back as Moist ran into the room.

"Doc!" He said. "Oh, hey Pen." Most looked back and forward between the two of them for a moment, then continued. "Doc, urgent message from Professor Normal. Thought you'd want it as soon as it arrived."

The moment broken, Billy stood up, smoothed down his rumpled t-shirt and ran his fingers through his hair. "Thanks Moist. Where is it?"

Moist grinned. "It's in the hallway." On seeing Penny's expression, he laughed. "What, you think I'd risk getting it all sticky?"

The corner of Billy's lips turned up with a ghost of a smile. "Come on then," he said, patting them both on the back. "Let's see what the ELE want us to do now?"

"Us?" Moist asked, raising an eyebrow.

Billy grinned. "Yeah. Let's give that a try."

To be continued...


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5 - Monster

Moist was spectacularly bad at computer games.

It wasn't just the excess wetness that caused the problem. The Doc had spent quite a lot of time making a waterproof universal games console controller (and when that didn't work, a super-industrial non-slip grip). It was just that Moist completely sucked at them.

Penny was surprised at how badly he sucked, considering what a nerd he was.

Moist's general ineptitude didn't stop him and the Doc spending hours playing games in the security surveillance room (which naturally had the best TV screens in the house). So it generally fell to Penny to organise the Doc's calendar on whatever fragile piece of technology he had picked up (including various tiny devices she'd never seen, apparently from the ELE's sister organisation in Japan). Penny somehow managed to keep track of all of this using the same dependable efficiency she showed in her daily cleaning rounds. And so, as Billy's demands for a personal assistant grew, Penny's time spent actually cleaning his house had decreased considerably.

Today, though, Penny found that reminding the Doc six times about his pending appointment with Snake Bite (official ELE business) just wasn't going to cut it! Eventually, she burst in on Billy and Moist in the surveillance room, the Doc's freshly laundered red coat swinging from a hanger over her shoulder. She watched them play for a moment, looking like two little kids, sprawled on the floor on beanbags, before she finally strode over to them and switched off the tv screen.

"Penny!" Her employer and his friend protested in unison.

Moist nudged Billy while Penny smiled indulgently. The Doc had called her "unflappable" once, which she took as a compliment.

"Snake Bite will be here in exactly four minutes." She announced. "It's your fault, Doc, for giving me that GPS locator gizmo. If you want accuracy, you have to suffer me bawling you out. Now shake your skinny white ass and get dressed!"

Moist snickered but when she scowled at him he soon got to his feet and rushed out of the door, too quickly to be shouted at.

Billy, meanwhile, got up with a scowl and switched the tv screen back on. "Okay, okay!" He said hurriedly, "Just give me a-" He used up valuable seconds to save their game and shut down the system before fumbled with his belt buckle.

"Leave the jeans," Penny grumbled, colouring slightly, as she helped him on with his lab coat. "They're black - no one will know!"

"I'll know," He said with a frown while she found herself helping to dress him. That was a little weird; a little too intimate. She felt like his Mom! But weirdly, in doing this, in buttoning the coat around his chest and across his shoulder, she found that his costume had lost its ability to spook her.

Penny handed him his gloves and goggles.

"How do I look?" He said, standing tall and crossing his arms over his chest in what he probably thought was a suitably manly fashion.

"Villainous." She replied with a smile.

He set his jaw, pulling the goggles down over his eyes and nodding to her. "Perfect." Before he left the room he flashed her a grin. "You know what to do…? Thanks, Pen."

*--*--*

Penny settled herself down on a beanbag, grabbing the remote that controlled the bank of monitors that took up most of the room's slightly-curved back wall. She took a slow sip of coffee.

From this room, she could monitor any of the other parts of the house and grounds on CCTV: The large dining room where all the ELE meetings took place, the basement lab where the Doc spent much of his time, the library, the kitchen. It freaked her out slightly when he'd first shown her the surveillance equipment. That is, until she realised that he never went in there except to play video games with Moist. The Doc had rigged an automatic monitor to keep undesirable people out of his lair and was entirely uninterested in what went on inside the house.

At least… she hoped he was!

However, there were some times, particularly during ELE meetings, when Billy would ask her or Moist to keep watch and record what was going on. Due to Moist's general inability to manage anything technical without electrocuting himself, Penny had found the security room had been added to her increasing list of duties and it was one she actually enjoyed doing. After all, it was kind of like being the director of a TV studio. She'd select the camera and the focus and the angle and the sound. Billy would often go through the digital recordings afterwards, examining his enemies for weaknesses, and she'd sometimes sit in with him. She found it fascinating, learning what he wanted recorded - close ups of facial expressions, for instance, and body language. Billy liked to watch and study people…

Well, she knew that from personal experience…

It seemed strange to Penny, looking back at her first few weeks working for him, how hostile she'd been towards him. She almost felt guilty for those feelings now. She hoped that he didn't watch any tapes of her! It would be just… wrong.

The Doc and Snake Bite weren't in the dining room. That was unusual. He'd taken his ELE visitor into the library and Penny wasn't quite so familiar with the cameras in that room. She flubbed the sequence for a few seconds until she got used to it, then finally managed to get a great angle on Snake Bite and turned her attention to the sound system.

At first, all Penny got was a combination of low static and ear-splitting feedback, so she didn't notice how close Snake Bite and Billy were until she glanced back and the monitor and realised that he was now completely blocking the good shot of her Snake Bite's face. Tutting at the effect his huge red back was having on the intelligent colour contrast system, Penny inched the camera round to get a better view, causing the camera focus to go haywire. She'd just got it under control when Snake Bite reached forward and casually removed the Doc's goggles.

Billy's back was towards her, so she couldn't see his reaction, but she could clearly make out (and made sure she recorded) the look on Snake Bite's face. It was one of triumph - perhaps even covetousness?

"…windows of the soul…?" Snake Bite's voice floated over the speaker as sound finally kicked in. Penny really didn't like Snake Bite's voice - all those sibilant s's. Of course, every super-villain had their little quirks - their signature affectations. But for some reason, Snake Bite's whole image just set Penny's teeth on edge. There was something overtly sexualised about her revealing leather costume - and what was that snake-headed staff all about? Phallic symbol, much? Compared to that, working for a guy with a mad scientist fixation was practically normal! Penny shuddered as she saw Snake Bite cosy-ing up to her boss and fiddled with the cameras angrily.

Billy was trying his best to glare. Penny recognised the expression he used whenever anyone interrupted him in the lab. However, this seemed to have little to no effect whatsoever on Snake Bite. In fact, the villainess simply pressed herself up against him, one hand brushing across his chest.

"It makes sense, Doctor," She said, the "s" in sense drawn out needlessly, Penny thought. "You… and me. Doing what evil people do."

"Slut!" Penny muttered, frowning.

Billy looked more confused than anything. Strange - Penny would have expected him to be… flattered, to be a slave to his hormones. He looked… confused, if anything… perhaps a little intimidated? When Snake Bite leaned in for a kiss, Penny circled the camera so that she could see his eyes widen with shock.

Should she be recording this? Penny thought. Her boss and Snake Bite were alone in the library, if they wanted to do… things… they were adults! Was it really her business? Billy had told Penny to record their meeting (encounter?) but she didn't have to be there. She could put the system on auto?

Penny's finger hovered over the automatic camera switch as she found it embarrassingly difficult to watch them. But there was a sudden blur on the screen and when she looked back up she was alarmed that everything was out of focus. Penny switched cameras to get a wide shot so of the room so that she could work out what the hell had happened.

Snake Bite was laughing, but she held her staff in front of her a little defensively. "Watch the body language…" Penny muttered. He'd told her that often enough. Billy was bent double, one hand on his neck, the other flat against the table top so that he was supporting himself. Penny tried to focus in as he pulled his hand away. There were red spots on his fingers. Had the bitch scratched him?

"You…!" Billy said, staggering. "What have you…? Poison?"

Penny gulped, wide eyed, her hands frozen on the controls.

The evil villainess laughed. "No, don't be so silly. You're far to amusing to kill. My venom has many other, far more interesting, properties."

Billy was blinking furiously. He stood up straight and rubbed his eyes, working his jaw as if he's ears were blocked. "What… have you… done…" He said, his voice sounding strange.

"You and me, Doctor," Snake Bite said, with a throaty chuckle. "The only two members of the Evil League of Evil who have any chance of producing an heir!" She snickered. "What's behind that great brain, I wonder? What happens if I switch it off?"

Penny managed to get a great shot of Billy's face, but what she saw terrified her. His eyes were glassy, his large pupils turning into mirrors in the dim light. Billy gulped a few times, like a fish on dry land, then groaned.

"Doctor Horrible," Snake Bite said, walking up behind him. "Say hello to your id…"

Suddenly, Billy's body seemed to stiffen and he slowly stood up straight. Slowly, he turned his head to look directly into the camera. Penny flinched, as if he was staring right at her. The look on his face was terrifying, sending a shiver down her spine. Slowly, Billy smirked. "Pen-ny," he said softly, his voice strangely remote, with an odd, sing-song cadence. "You'd better stop watching. You're _not_ going to like this!"

Penny scrambled to her feet, not even stopping to switch off the machines, and bolted from the room.

From somewhere in the house there came a shrill, blood-curdling scream.

*--*--*

Penny hid, shaking and terrified, in the corridor for a full five minutes before finally breaking cover and going for help. She ran to the kitchen but could hear the commotion from outside the library before she even got there.

The Doc was outside the room, shouting at Moist - agressively demanding to be let back into the library so he could "finish what he'd started". Two of his burly security guards (guys she always forgot existed until she passed outside the front gate) were holding Billy back and Moist was recoiling under the verbal onslaught.

Billy looked… rabid. There was no other word for it! His red coat was open, hanging half way off his shoulders from where the guards held him. The most disturbing thing was that his jeans were undone, slipped down on his hips so that she could see his underwear.  
And his eyes…

Penny crept around so that she could see inside the library, getting a glimpse of a bare leg lying on the floor behind where Moist was standing. A bare leg with a splash of blood, starkly crimson against the white skin…

Penny clamped her hand over her mouth and gagged.

"Penny, oh god!" Moist yelled. "Get out of here - get out of here NOW!"

She ran. She pelted out the front door and over the gravel drive, around to her car and her heart didn't stop racing till she reached home, not even then. Penny would never forget the image of Snake Bite's legs, or of Billy, raging like a madman - like some kind of animal. She barely made it out of the car before she threw up.

*--*--*

"No, I'm impressed," Professor Normal was saying. "Bad Horse is impressed. She got what she deserved, after all."

Penny crept carefully past the open dining room door, telling herself not to listen but unable not to.  
She wore her apron. She'd tied back her hair in a bun. Cleaners didn't have to deal with this shit.

However, instead of going into the Library (where she generally started work every day but, you know, no way!) Penny made her way straight to the kitchen.

Moist was sat amongst the empty pots and pans. He wasn't cooking.

"I think I got fired last night," He said.

"Have you spoken to him?" Penny slipped into the seat opposite Moist. He looked awful - pale and sick, with dark circles under his eyes. She knew she probably looked equally bad if not worse.

"Nope. He was in with Normal and Jefferson when I got here."

"They're talking about it…" Penny said, swallowing. Perhaps it was for the best that there wasn't anything cooking today? She didn't think her stomach could handle it the smell. "What happened?" She forced herself to retain a semblance of calm.

"Near as I can figure - there was some kind of neurotoxin in Snake Bite's staff. She swiped the Doc with it and he went full-on berserk!"

"Bet she didn't see that coming…" Penny murmured sarcastically. Her brain seemed to shut down. Blood… a bare leg… "Did he kill her?"

Moist nodded. "It wasn't pretty. When he sobered up, he was sure that Bad Horse was going to kill him right back."

Penny swallowed, remember the state Billy was in. "Did he…" Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Rape her?"

Moist didn't answer. His eyes took on that unfocussed look that Penny was sure she also carried since it happened.

"Jesus." Was all she managed.

"Penny, he doesn't remember much. Snake Bite did that to him. She must have know what she'd unleash. It was primal."

Penny shook her head. "There's so much rage in him. So much hatred! How could she not have known that?"

"Are you're blaming him or her?" Moist looked on the verge of tears. "He didn't know what he was doing!"

But Penny remembered how Billy had looked at her right through the camera lens with an expression of pure evil. She remembered his voice: "You'd better stop watching…"

Penny shook her head. On some level, he'd known.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

Part 5 - Can't stop, won't stop

He sat in his ridiculously over-sized chair, one elbow resting on the arm, his hand balled into a fist in front of his mouth. As one of the guards dragged a struggling man into the library, he gestured to Moist, who hefted a metal contraption from the table and aimed it at the man.

Doctor Horrible pointed a gloved finger at the guard, who let the man go and stepped back. Moist pressed a button on the device and there was a sub-sonic boom that even Penny could hear, hidden away in the surveillance room.

The prisoner, who Penny thought she vaguely recognised, was thrown back as some sort of force knocked him off his feet. He landed on the floor with his back arched a good three feet off the ground so that he looked like he was being suspended by an invisible rope. Penny reached out a shaking hand for the tracker ball control and zoomed in, not on the prisoner but on Doctor Horrible.

The bad Doctor watched his prisoner intently and didn't lift a finger to help him.

Penny swallowed, her mouth dry as another prisoner was dragged into the room. The first one spent a few seconds writhing in agony before going limp.

"Hmm," Horrible murmured. "Take him down to the lab." He nodded at Moist once more, who picked up a much smaller gadget from the table and pointed it at the second prisoner. He barely gave the guard time to let go before he "fired" it.

The prisoner began to bleed out of his ears and nose.

Penny got to her feet and made for the door. She'd seen enough.

*--*--*

Billy was down in the lab when Penny went looking for him. He was slumped over his workbench, surrounded by unsteady-looking heaps of circuitry and heavy machinery that were held in place by large iron clamps. His white lab coat was rumpled and covered in grey metallic dust. Penny could hear the steady, slow cadence of his breathing as she approached him. It was a pretty good bet that he was deeply asleep, his body having finally given up after he'd pushed himself for three days straight, working on some top secret new project that would no doubt be just as despicable as the last few. Penny had left him alone for as long as possible, but finally Moist's almost hysterical level of concern had driven her down here - not to check on Billy exactly, but simply to perform her over-due cleaning duties.

Penny attempted to tidy up around him. As she picked her way carefully through the chaos and debris of the lab, she could see that he still had the goggles on, although they'd shifted around, flattening his hair on one side. He'd have a crick in his neck, when he woke up. She tutted, clicking her tongue as she almost reached out a hand to shake his shoulder. However, before her fingers could move more than a couple of inches, she jerked her arm back.

Penny wasn't ashamed to admit that she was afraid of him.

She knew that she'd been wrong to separate Billy from Doctor Horrible in her mind as if they were two different people. As Doctor Horrible, Billy had seemed to adopt such a different personality. But now Penny knew that even he couldn't keep up that division anymore.

She almost wished she had never found out about Snake Bite and things could go back to the way they were before. The fact that Billy had been hanging out with her and Moist like a regular person had lulled her into a false sense of security. The atmosphere within Horrible mansion had now changed dramatically. There were no more extended coffee breaks in the kitchen, the three of them devising crazy plans to subvert the ELE from within. There were no more all-night computer game sessions between Moist and the Doc.

Looking down at Billy, Penny was affronted that he could still do something as human as sleep. Part of her had come to regard Billy as a friend and she still had a residual urge to support and help him. It annoyed her but, intellectually, she now understood more clearly than she had before just what Billy was.

Billy was Doctor Horrible, even without the lab coat and goggles.

It sounded so simple, so obvious. But it was terrifying. It was as terrifying as when you really looked into Billy's cold blue eyes. It was as terrifying as the first time she'd seen him in the red version of his lab coat.

And Penny hadn't spoken to Billy since he'd killed Snake Bite.

Suddenly, Billy groaned. It couldn't be doing him any good to be breathing in all that dust with his nose pressed to the table. Penny kicked herself, mentally. Why did she care? Friendship-feelings were clingy things.

Quickly, before she had time to think, Penny screwed up her courage and shook Billy awake.

"Mpph? Hur? Waaa?" He said, red-rimmed eyes snapping open.

"If you're going to sleep, use the bed?" She said, with a hint of bitterness although she was careful not to be strident around him. "After you and Moist spent so long hauling it down the stairs, the least you can do is get a few hours rest?"

"Penny?" He said woozily, trying to stand up. She stepped back, giving him a wide berth as he made his way over to a small camp-bed and collapsed back on the mattress. His face was pinched and grey and there were dark circles under his eyes. Penny wondered when he's last eaten anything. He looked positively skeletal. She comforted herself with the thought that he was obviously suffering. He deserved to suffer after what he'd done.

Billy reached out and pulled the goggles from his forehead, grimy fingers brushing distractedly through the tufts of unruly blond hair. Penny smiled a tight-lipped smile, the same smile she'd given to Fury Leika when she'd worked for her. Penny could see the mania in Billy's eyes, even though he was too physically exhausted to do anything about it. He tried to sit up.

"You have Jefferson coming over at six." She blurted. "Try and get an hour's sleep at least."

"Can't- sleep-" He said, his voice a weird staccato, as if he wasn't used to talking to another person.

"If you don't, you'll never regain the strength to carry on with… whatever the hell you're doing! You'll just collapse again and that'll waste time. It's inefficient…" Penny closed her eyes briefly. By god, she still sounded his assistant. It upset her that he'd never even bothered to even try to talk to her. How quickly her supposedly invaluable henchman-ship (henchwoman-ship?) had been cast aside.

For a moment it looked like Billy might rebel but he finally slumped back. "Okay, I'll just… close m' eyes. Get Moist to wake me."

Yes, she thought. Of course. Moist. "I could get him to bring you some coffee and something to eat?" She said, cursing herself for being so _nice_ to him. When he didn't reply, she made the mistake of moving closer, wondering if he'd fallen asleep again.

Even though his eyes were closed, Billy reached out and grabbed her wrist. It hurt, but he didn't let go. He opened his eyes and there was something deep and unfathomable there, like looking into the depths of the ocean. Then he released her.

Penny rubbed her wrist crossly, putting on a brave face, but she was shaken, her gut twisted up inside. Sometimes he really repelled her. "When you're more awake, I need to talk to you." She said.

He grunted and turned over on the bed, his back to her.

"It's important," she continued, but he was already asleep. That was it. She made her decision.

Penny never could explain what she did next, although she could make the excuse that it was due to anger at him and frustration locked inside her. But whatever the reason, she took a blueprint that was on the workbench where the Doc had been sitting, folded in and tucked it in her pocket.

*--*--

"He looks so tired," She thought, "and older". His hair needed cutting and had curled at the nape of his neck. It was funny how she noticed that, Penny thought, as she stood up a little straighter and tried to steel herself against feeling any kind of residual sympathy for him.

They were in the library where, three days before, he'd had two men killed. This was the problem. You didn't resign from a job when your boss could just zap you with his ray gun out of spite. But she'd always known that.

Billy was in his usual position - sprawled in the giant armchair. She, however, was standing in the middle of the room, hands clasped behind her back. It reminded her of when she'd first started working for him.

"How many cleaners did you get through before me?" She asked him.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Penny, I'm an evil genius. I can't have people fussing around me or screaming whenever something explodes in the lab."

She frowns at him. "How many?"

"Five? Six? I didn't really count." He frowned and his forehead wrinkles became more pronounced, particularly the one above his right eyebrow. "Why…?" He mumbled.

"It's easy to get a new one I imagine?" She said, firmly but gently. "When I leave tonight, I'm not coming back."

He let out a laugh. "What? You're quitting?"

"No, you're sacking me. I've seen you kill three people in this house and I can't stand by and let that carry on. I would have to try and stop you."

He shook his head, incredulously, eyes narrowing. She felt almost relieved to see the anger building in him. "You hypocrite!" He said, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. "You've worked for the ELE for ten years! You never had any sudden moral qualms with any of the others!"

She shook her head, feeling sick. She didn't have any argument with that. "None of the others tried to be my friend."

He laughed, a thin, nasty sound. "So this is what you do to your friends? You abandon me. You abandon Moist. You think so little of me and yet you run away and leave Moist to cope on his own?" He got to his feet. "Or is this all about something else?"

The guilt twinged within her gut before she could get her defences up. "I'd have thought you were above that kind of low emotional blackmail, _Billy_," She said.

He took a step closer to her. Then another. Oh, he was good at this! If she stepped back, he'd sense her weakness, she knew.

"I thought you were so loyal, Penny," He said, his eyes blue-grey in the weakening light.

"I knew you'd done evil things, but I didn't think you were an evil man!" She said, trying to stop her voice from shaking.

They were nose to nose now.

"So that's it? You've made up your mind? Now you're just walking out?" He snarled.

"You don't feel any remorse at all, do you?" She tried to look into his soul, tried to find even the tiniest spark of real feeling. "It was all fake when I saw you crying. It was crocodile tears, Billy. Not real emotion at all. Did you ever care about killing anyone?"

For a second, she saw him recoil. It was just a flicker in his eyes but she knew she'd wounded him.

But then his expression hardened again. "You're playing a very dangerous game."

Penny could feel the heat radiating from him. She was very conscious of the bare inch of distance between them. "Are you going to prove me right? Because that's what you do now, you like hurting women?"

His expression twisted and he grabbed her upper arms, his lips pressing suddenly and aggressively against hers. It was an unexpected invasion and so shocking that for the first few seconds she just stood there and took it - his clumsy kiss. When he growled, low in his throat and she could feel the rumble deep in her gut. He let go of her arms, their teeth clashing as their bodies pressed together for a moment and something built very quickly inside her, something powered by rage and sorrow and horror at everything Billy had done. She pushed him away as hard as she could, both hands on his chest. He stumbled backwards and there was a heady mix of fear and anger in his eyes. Penny couldn't hold back the sob that bubbled up in her throat.

She turned and headed towards the door, swaying clumsily, her heart hammering in her chest.

"Penny," Billy reached out towards her, his fingers swiping the air as she darted backwards.

As she ran from him, her biggest regret was that she couldn't even bring herself to say goodbye to Moist, but she couldn't bear to stay one more moment in that house of horror.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7 - So you think Justice has a voice?**

Penny's knuckles slowly turned white where she held the gun, the red dot flickering slightly across Billy's face as she tried desperately to steady her aim.

His eyes... his eyes were wide, begging her, pleading with her. She closed her own, briefly, blocking him out.

She had to focus on what he'd done - on everything he'd done. She had to focus, not on the weapon in her hand but on the one sitting in front of her.

Penny took a deep breath, opened her eyes and fired.

*--*--*

_Two hours earlier…_

Moist appeared on Penny's doorstep at eight pm on New Year's Eve. She barely heard the muffled knocking at first, but finally rushed to the door, her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

She stood there incredulously when she saw him standing in the rain, cowering. A thousand possible explanations for the henchman's presence raced through her mind, none of them good.

"Moist," she said, shaking her head. "What are you doing here?"

"Pen, can I come in?" He said urgently, eyes darting around like crazy. He looked terrified.

"No! Tell me what you're doing here?" She scowled. It was New Year's Eve! Even if she hadn't been going out she still wouldn't have given Moist more than five minutes of her time. She hadn't seen him in a month! Not since her stupid resignation. Since then she'd lived with the constant fear of recrimination from the E.L.E. Perhaps he was there to finally do it? To finally make her "disappear"?

Moist held up his hands placatingly. "Pen, he's going to do it. The Doc - tonight, he's finally going to do it. He's going to try and overthrow Bad Horse." Moist gulped hard. "And he's going to die."

Penny shook her head. "How do you know this, Moist?"

Moist sighed and bowed his head, avoiding her eye as he spoke. "Because I told Bad Horse."

"What?"

"I've told Bad Horse exactly what the Doc plans to do!"

Penny stood there for a moment, considering her options. "Moist… I think you'd better come inside."

He followed her in, saying, accusingly "Well, I did ask…"

*--*--*

Penny paced the length of her dining room, struggling to understand what Moist wanted from her. "So, you've betrayed him and… now what? You can't just take that kind of thing back, Moist. You of all people should understand which side you've taken."

Moist sighed. "It wasn't like that. You don't understand. The Doc… He changed, after you left."

Penny shook her head with a bitter smile. "Moist, he'd already changed. And perhaps he was always like that… evil, I mean."

Moist let out a frustrated sigh. "No, that's not what I mean. He became obsessed - really single minded. He was talking crazy talk - about wiping out the whole city, zapping people's brains? It just wasn't… fun anymore."

"Fun?" Penny looked at him incredulously.

Moist scowled. "Come on, you know what I mean! The Doc always had this… this _vision_… like he wanted to make a better world, you know? Where we would come out on top. And all his inventions were about making that happen. And then, he was suddenly all about the death and the destruction and… Sheesh. He'd have been worse than Bad Horse. He'd have killed everybody, Penny. He'd have killed _me_! I don't even know what he wants anymore."

Penny studied him for a moment. "So you told Bad Horse about his plans? And what… what did you expect to happen?"

"I just wanted them to shake him up, you know? Get him back on the right path. The right _evil_ path, obvouisly."

Penny laughed. "Moist, it's BAD HORSE! He's going to cut him into a million pieces. Then trample him. Probably while he's still alive."

Moist looked terrified. "And then… what'll happen to me?"

Penny snorted. "Jesus, is that all you can think about? Yourself?" She rolled her eyes. "Look, I really don't care. I don't know why I'm having this conversation. Billy deserves all he gets. He's murdered people. He's thoroughly irredeemable. If Bad Horse kills him then we should thank him. That's one less super villain terrorising us!"

Moist shook his head. "You don't understand, Penny. The Doc's my friend and I'm getting him murdered. I can't just let that happen! We struggled for years for him to get into the League. I made one stupid mistake and now his life is on the line. You _have_ to help me, Penny. You're the only one who will."

Penny felt herself weakening. "Look, let me make some coffee and we'll talk about it, okay?" She just couldn't turn Moist away. He just looked so… pathetic! She'd feel like she was kicking a (very damp) puppy.

The relief on Moist's face made her a little angry. She hated that Moist expected her to sort all this out. She hated that she was even considering it.

"Moist," She said, warningly. "You've got to remember… I walked out on him. Billy hates me."

Moist shook his head. "No! No, of course he doesn't. Sheesh, Pen. You never understood him at all, did you?"

*--*--*

Penny got Moist some coffee while he pawed over the blueprints, spread out across her dining table. "I have no idea which weapon these are for," she said. "Do you think it could help? I- I took them from his lab." She wondered if she should get Moist some cookies? They always had cookies while they plotted. She half expected Billy to burst through the door, still dressed in that white lab coat, shrieking crazily about his latest invention.

But no, it was very likely Billy was going to die or even that he might be already dead. She didn't know how she'd feel about that.

"I don't think this is a weapon," Moist replied. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that this is a floor plan. And I know where this is…" Moist leaned closely over the paper, his fingers leaving little damp smudges where he traced the lines.

"Oh? Where?" Penny tried not to sound too interested.

"I think this is the ELE headquarters," Moist answered her. "And I think the Doc's rigged it to blow up…"

Penny nodded sanguinely. Of course. Billy was all about the drama. "Really?"

Moist shook his head. "But that's not the best thing…"

"_Best_ thing?"

"There's a schematic of the security system here. There's so many holes in it."

Penny gave him a pointed look.

"Hey, I've been the Doc's henchman for years! It's hard not to pick stuff up, you know? This is just like that bank job a few months , I bet he's used pretty much the same plan!"

Penny shook her head, indicating that she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Multiple booby traps - layers of back-up devices. Oh my god! Penny, even if Bad Horse knows the Doc's planned to betray them, he'd never find all of this. Oh… this is much worse than I thought. The Doc isn't planning to take over the E.L.E. I think he's planning to destroy it. Himself included."

Penny gaped in astonishment at the audacity of the plan. But that was a good thing, wasn't it? Getting rid of all the villains in one go? "Good riddance," she muttered, although her heart wasn't really in it. After all, wasn't murder where she had drawn her own moral line? The League members should be punished, not killed. But then she remembered the look of agony contorting the features of the man who she'd seen die in the library and the manic expression on Billy's face after he'd killed Snake Bite. "So what you're saying," she continued, "is that Billy plans to blow the League sky high and do the world a favour?" It was hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

But Moist only sighed. "No. He'll never get the chance."

Penny shook her head. "What, even with all those back-up devices you think are there?"

Moist tilted his head. "Not if Bad Horse knows. Trust me, Pen. We're the only ones who can save the Doc now."

*--*--*

"What the hell am I doing here?" Penny said, under her breath. They were at the back of a non-descript looking warehouse,

"We're sidekicks," Moist said. Penny was surprised he'd heard her. "This is what we do. We do anything we can to help the Boss."

"You make it sound almost heroic," she said, laughing softly. "You know I'm only here to make sure you don't get yourself killed. Billy deserves everything he gets."

"You don't mean that," Moist whispered over this shoulder, then pointed silently at what looked like a delivery hatch in the side of the building.

The both ran over to it, carrying large black duffle-bags. Penny's wasn't heavy, but she felt the weight of it dragging her down. To think that she was carrying the weapon that had caused that poor man to bleed out of his ears and nose! Moist said it was some kind of mind-wipe ray and the Doc was still trying to iron out the kinks. This didn't make Penny feel any better.

Moist made short work of the hatch, which impressed Penny in a strange and confusing way. She'd never really thought of him as Billy's henchman, even though she supposed he was. No, Moist was the cook! The friendly, sweet, kind cook. Henchmen were all bulky and muscle-y and carried scary looking guns.

But she guessed that some henchmen had to be good at breaking into buildings too, right? Otherwise, all the heists would go horribly wrong.

What the hell was she doing there? She didn't want to warn Billy! She didn't want to help Billy! She almost turned back there and then. It didn't matter to her that Billy really was going through with his promise to annihilate the League. His ends really didn't justify his means. Not in this case.

"Hey, are you coming?" Moist asked her, tugging her arm towards the door. He looked so scared, so brave, that she couldn't walk away from him. "They're going to kill him, Penny. If we don't stop them, they're going to kill the Doc!"

Penny sighed. "They're probably going to kill us now as well."

This really wasn't how Penny had planned to spend her New Year's Eve.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8 - Everything you ever**

Of course. Of course this was how it had to end.

Penny watched as Professor Normal dragged Moist from out behind his hiding place. The henchman/cook had dropped the booby-trap control unit and been discovered. If only he'd given it to her! How hard would it be to press one button?

Of course, that would mean a horrible death for them all.

Which was somewhat ironic.

Now Moist was captured and she was standing awkwardly behind the wood-panelled bookcase, trying not to breathe too loudly.

Moist was clearly terrified, but Penny was certain that Billy wouldn't let any harm come to his friend. Whatever plan Bad Horse had for Billy, he certainly didn't seem to have put in into action. She and Moist had watched the proceedings with some interest. There was no mention of Billy's plot. They seemed to be going about some boring administrative League business.

And then Moist had got himself caught and Penny had witnessed the true horror of Bad Horse.

She'd never really understood what the Leader of the Evil League of Evil could do, not even when Moist had tried to explain it to her. You had to see it first hand.

"Hello little man," Billy said, while Moist cowered in Professor Normal's grip. Normal didn't look like a strong man but Moist couldn't seem to escape the cyborg.

Billy's voice sounded odd. Forced. He jerked like a puppet as he spoke. As if someone else were controlling him. Penny strained to see through the gap in the shelving, peering out.

"Come to help your Boss now?" Billy's breath hitched around each word, his expression twisted. "Too late, little man. Much too late to change your mind. I think that Dr Horrible might have a few things to say to you. Betrayer!"

Billy slumped forward across the table suddenly, as if his strings had been cut. Bad Horse snorted.

Penny's mouth went dry as Billy struggled to look up, his goggles twisted crooked across his forehead. "Moist!" He shouted, sounding more like himself. "Moist - get out of here. Get out of here now!" He started to choke, his body spasming. Finally he shuddered and sat back up. When he began to speak, he was blinking rapidly and continually.

Bad Horse was controlling him.

Penny shook her head. That was Bad Horse's power, Moist had told her. He could control minds - human minds. Make people do anything he wanted. It kept the other members of the E.L.E. in constant fear. Even though Bad Horse couldn't control more than one person at a time, everyone was terrified that it might be them _next_.

Penny supposed, with a calm that surprised her, that it was a useful trait for a horse to have.

Billy was speaking again. "Humans. With their stupid loyalty, even to the end. You sicken me. Goodbye little man. I think your time is up."

Bad Horse let out a terrifying whinny and Billy raised his arm, firing his mini-laser and point blank range. There was a flash and a horrible smell of burning meat. Moist slumped to the ground, the upper part of his face blackened and obliterated.

Penny covered her mouth, fighting back the urge to vomit.

No! She couldn't believe it! She wouldn't believe it!

Moist was dead.

*--*--

The worst thing was how quickly they all dismissed him; how quickly they ignored the broken body lying on the floor. Every member of the ELE seemed to shrug off the murder, only Dead Bowie showing even a flicker of distaste. They were soon discussing other matters.

They were soon discussing another death.

The death of Doctor Horrible.

Billy sat there among them, his lips clamped lightly shut but his eyes darting around the room as if he could find a way to escape. He sat upright and rigid, listening to them plan his fate; his terrible demise.

The gun felt incredibly heavy in Penny's hand as she inched around the bookcase, to where the booby-trap control panel had fallen.

"Look, just leave it to me…" Fury Leika was saying. "You know I won't let him die easy or die quick. I could burn off his skin, bit by bit. Sheesh, guys, it would be a pleasure after what he did to Snake. Men are just animals." She winked at Dead Bowie, who rolled his eyes.

Bad Horse cut her off with a neigh. Leika crossed her arms with a "hurrumph!"

Billy slumped in his seat. After a moment, he reached up and slid the goggles back over his eyes.

"So, you are not going to try and plead your case?" Thomas Jefferson asked, pompously. "You are not even going to try and defend yourself."

But Billy wasn't looking at them. Although she couldn't see his eyes, Penny could see the direction of his gaze. It was Moist's body - still sprawled across the floor - that held his attention.

"You all deserve to die," He whispered.

And Penny smiled, stepping forward to scoop the controller off the floor, hoisting the gun and levelling it at the conference table.

"He's not wrong," She said with a steely grin.

*--*--*

"Who is this… p-person?" Jefferson demanded, sounding outraged.

Leika laughed. "She's a cleaner!" She snorted. "She's _his_ cleaner! But hey, didn't you resign?"

Penny bit her lip.

"A cleaner?" Tie Die said, incredulously.

Billy was staring at her, mouth open.

"Doesn't matter who I am," Penny said, her voice cracking. "It matters what I've got here. The control to the booby traps and bombs that riddle this place."

Bowie laughed at her. "Don't be so stupid. We disabled that."

Penny grinned mithlessly. "You disabled the primary systems. I doubt you got all the backups. If there's one thing I've learned about the Doc," she pointed at his casually with her thumb, "it's that he's really, really smart."

Silence spread around the room. Penny could practically feel the temperature lowering. Each member of the League looked suspiciously at each other. She could tell that each and every one was trying to work out how to save his or her own hide. So much for honour amongst thieves?

"He may be clever," A voice drifted over the conference table - that horrible, jerking, unnatural voice. "But he's armed. Take one more step, little girl, and he'll shoot you through the heart."

Penny looked up in horror. With the goggles over his eyes, Billy looked like an automaton. When his lips weren't moving, they stretched over his teeth in a rictus grimace.

"He won't kill me!" She said, feigning confidence. But she knew he would, of course. She'd got a glimpse of what it must be like to be under Bad Horse's control. Why did Billy have such an expressive face? Damn him, no one deserved that.

"He's not even able to lift his own hand. He just killed his best friend." Bad Horse let out a triumphant neigh.

But what the horse couldn't see and Penny could was that Billy could move - his fingers were vibrating, then clenching into a fist, and then he reached up and removed his goggles. At the same time he raised his other arm - the one with the mini-laser mounted on it.

Penny was running out of time. Her knuckles slowly turned white where she held the gun, the red dot flickering slightly across Billy's face as she tried desperately to steady her aim…

*--*--*

Billy was slumped bonelessly across the conference table, face down in a pool of blood. He wouldn't be getting up this time.

The gun Penny held was flashing like crazy. It was probably going to blow up in her hand any minute.

Bad Horse was shaking his head from side to side and snorting, stamping his hooves on the ground. Jefferson had got to his feet and Normal was striding towards her.

It was now or never.

There was no more time.

Moist was dead. Billy was a vegetable. These evil men and woman couldn't be allowed to just get away with that. She couldn't let them. She had the power. Billy had put the power in HER hands.

She remembered his words, that morning after he'd killed fifteen people. "It's when you fail to act that the world goes to hell. It's when you hesitate…"

She guessed that she'd just have to die a hero.

Penny pressed the button and the world went to hell anyway.

THE END


End file.
